Series consists of sub-series relating to: the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism; Carleton University's Feasibility Study For A Communications Research Institute; the Federal Advisory Committee On Election Expenses; Miscellaneous Subjects; Election Expenses and Party Finance; Political Broadcasting; Paltiel's Ph.D. thesis on the Progressive Party in Israel; his consulting work for federal and provincial governments on election expenses, and for Native organizations on constitutional issues; Paltiel's speaking and writing engagements; and academic papers by others. The files in each Sub-Series contain correspondence, research and interview notes, draft manuscripts, conference papers, article reprints, pamphlets, publications, press clippings, and miscellaneous printed matter.
There are four points to be noted when examining the files. The first is that the Series is comprised of research files and thus contains a considerable amount of photocopied material. The second concerns the age of the material. Since all the files were created between 1958 and 1988, they hold few original documents which pre-date this period. Most material dated prior to 1950 should be considered copied material. Thirdly, there has been some migration of documents between files in the Series. Those created for the Committee on Election Expenses, for example, were transferred either in whole or in part by Paltiel to research files dealing with Party Finance or Political Broadcasting. Fourthly, it should be noted that the Research Series is both national and international in scope. As such, the series holds numerous documents and publications which are written in languages other than English or French.
